Millions of Americans are eagerly awaiting their second $ 600 incentive check for every eligible adult and child. The IRS said on Tuesday that it had begun distributing the checks via direct deposit that evening, a process that will extend into next week.
The IRS added that it will be sending paper checks to people who have not registered their bank account information with the IRS on Dec. 30. Yet the timeline leaves many people wondering when exactly the check will land on their accounts – especially since the IRS website for checking someone’s payment status is down.
The second stimulus check follows a rocky rollout this spring for more than 160 million stimulus payments led by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. That relief effort, which led to $ 1,200 for each eligible adult and $ 500 for each eligible child, ran into a number of issues, such as a delay in payment to people who had not registered their bank account information with the IRS, as was the case for some Social Security recipients.
The IRS will use the same method of getting the money to the people as it did in the first round, said Mark Steber, chief tax information officer at Jackson Hewitt.
“If taxpayers have received a direct deposit, they will do it again; if they have received a check or debit card, they will do it again,” he said.
But the IRS “Get My Payment” website is currently offline. The agency said it expects its “Get My Payment” tool to be operational again in a few days, although it did not specify a date.
That’s a problem, although the site should be up next week, based on the statement from the IRS, Steber noted. “The updated website should include information on both the first and second incentive payments,” he said.
That website allowed people to provide or update their bank account information to the IRS this spring. It also informed people when their checks would end up in their accounts. But it also had problems. Some people reported that they have error messages such as “Payment status not available”, while others were blocked from accessing the site.
“Payments are automatic”
On Dec. 29, the IRS said that the “payments are automatic” for people who file a 2019 tax return, as well as for people receiving Social Security benefits, railroad retirement benefits, or supplemental security income and veterans case beneficiaries who do not receive a tax refund.
The IRS added that people who had successfully used the Non-Filers tool before Nov. 21 – a site created to ensure that people who don’t normally file a tax return would receive a payment – would automatically receive their second incentive checks. .
The payments are not taxed because they are not considered income, Steber said. But, he added, “taxpayers must keep their Notice 1444 from the IRS, showing the exact amount they have received, to reconcile their payments so that they can receive any additional amount due on their 2020 tax return. “
How much will I get?
The IRS steers $ 600 for each eligible adult and child – not the $ 2,000 that was pushed by President Donald Trump.
Senate leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked an attempt to vote on the $ 2,000 stimulus vouchers approved by the House, but resurrected the higher payments in a new bill that includes other items on Mr. Trump’s wish list, including the repeal of Section 230, which protects social media companies from lawsuits.
While stimulus controls are unlikely to increase to $ 2,000, the Treasury Department said it could handle that possibility. “If additional legislation is passed to provide for a higher amount, the payments for economic impact that have been issued will be topped up as soon as possible,” the Treasury said on December 29.
The second round of payments leads to $ 600 for singles making up to $ 75,000 and $ 1,200 for married couples making up to $ 150,000.
The amount then drops for people earning above those thresholds and disappears completely for singles earning more than $ 87,000 and married couples earning more than $ 174,000. Children under 17 years of age receive $ 600 each. Children 17 years of age are not eligible, as are dependent adults, such as students and some disabled people who are identified as dependents according to their relatives’ tax returns.
More people are eligible for the second round of stimulus checks than the first, the IRS added.
Under the earlier CARES law, joint returns of couples where only one member of the couple had a Social Security number were generally ineligible for payment – unless they were members of the military, the IRS noted. “But this month’s new law changes and expands that provision.”
Under the new emergency relief law, the U.S. government will allow mixed-status households of U.S. citizens with undocumented relatives to receive incentive checks that were denied to them under the first round of legislation in the spring, and which led to several lawsuits.